Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

lessons.nihongo-app.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 123 posts

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#71

Post by eloisant »

jbm wrote: post #38
diob wrote: post #7

The Japanese learning space feels so crowded. Most are marketed towards beginners, which makes sense when you see statistics (most folks give up). The top tier tools I recommend anyone are Wanikani and Bunpro. Beyond that, reading! I tried a site dedicated to it, but realized that I'm too much of a picky reader to do anything but read things I find interesting. So I read japanese and english books side by side now. I…

Once you pass intermediate, it gets even worse. Anki, Shinjigen, Aozora Bunko and a Kindle with a generous book budget on the Amazon.co.jp store is what I do now (that, and consulting for a Japanese company). Related, if you are a beginner, apps other than Anki were a waste of time to me. (Actually, the most effective thing for me was basically being wrecked in a summer university level course and only getting out by…

Yes I really second Anki, when you're learning it's much better to create your own flash cards for the new words you encounter than having an app throw you random vocabulary words.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#72

Post by eloisant »

Ruarl wrote: post #68
timr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think a lot of people don't get past the "learn all the characters first" barrier. PSA: That's not an actual barrier. It's a borderline useless thing that some significant subset of self-learners seem to do, for reasons I cannot explain. There is no such thing as "learning the characters". You need to learn words and sentences. You can certainly categorize the learning by character (this is how it's done in Japan…

In his books, Heisig recommends learning all the joyo kanji before anything else. It's what his books are for, so it isn't a surprise, but perhaps that's where the idea that it's useful to do so came from.

Yes, that's his point of view but he's a bit alone on that. It probably works if you're not using Japanese at all while learning the Kanji, but if you do need to use Japanese (i.e. freshly arrived in Japan) it doesn't really make sense to spend 1 year on kanji before learning the language.

For most people kanji is better learned with vocabulary.

You definitely need to learn hiragana first, and not use romaji at all, but that can be done in 2 weeks.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#74

Post by trophycase »

If you are trying to learn Japanese I highly recommend the Youtube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@organicjapanesewithcuredol49

It explains the actual structure of the language in a way I've not seen anywhere else. The creator passed away last year but the content is still incredible and useful.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#75

Post by eloisant »

Tor3 wrote: post #70
glandium wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thus "specific circumstances". But that's quite rare to hear for adult males, and only from a limited set of people in that person's entourage.

There's no way I can pull up statistics, I only have my own experience to rely on. I know a couple of men in their sixties who only go by -chan, except in formal situations. And one woman who hates her given name so much that she only goes by a different -chan name, strangers and friends alike. As for "おばちゃん" about middle-aged women you happens to know, from what I see it's quite common to address nearby and not-so-n…

It's not really an age limitation, but it's much easier to use "chan" for kids.

Basically -chan for girls and -kun for boys is used pretty much automatically for smaller kids, even if you meet them for the first time.

For adults it's more complex, it depends how close you are, how that person is used to be called among family/close friends, etc.

Post reply on HN